hatever you do, read something else besides novels and newspapers; the
first are good enough when they are good; the second, at their best, are
worth nothing. Read great books of literature and history; try to
understand the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages; be sure you do not
understand when you dislike them; condemnation is non-comprehension. And
if you know something of these two periods, you will know a little more
about to-day, and may be a good President.

I send you my best wishes, and am yours,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON,

_Author of a vast quantity of little books_.

TO E. L. BURLINGAME

The next letter announces to his New York publishers the beginning of
his volume on the troubles of Samoa, _A Footnote to History_.

[_Vailima, December 1891._]

MY DEAR BURLINGAME,--The end of _The Wrecker_ having but just come in,
you will, I dare say, be appalled to receive three (possibly four)
chapters of a new book of the least attractive sort: a history of
nowhere in a corner, or no time to mention, running to a volume! Well,
it may very likely be an illusion; it is very likely no one could
possibly wish to read it, but I wish to publish it. If you don't cotton
to the idea, kindly set it up at my expense, and let me know your terms
for publishing. The great affair to me is to have per return (if it
might be) four or five--better say half a dozen--sets of the roughest
proofs that can be drawn. There are a good many men here whom I want to
read the blessed thing, and not one would have the energy to read MS. At
the same time, if you care to glance at it, and have the time, I should
be very glad of your opinion as to whether I have made any step at all
towards possibly inducing folk at home to read matter so extraneous and
outlandish. I become heavy and owlish; years sit upon me; it begins to
seem to me to be a man's business to leave off his damnable faces and
say his say. Else I could have made it pungent and light and lively. In
considering, kindly forget that I am R. L. S.; think of the four
chapters as a book you are reading, by an inhabitant of our "lovely but
fatil" islands; and see if it could possibly amuse the hebetated public.
I have to publish anyway, you understand; I have a purpose beyond; I am
concerned for some of the parties to this quarrel. What I want to hear
is from curiosity; what I want you to judge of is what we are to do with
the book in a business sense. To me it is not